Bret Schnitker, Emily Lane, Mary Ruppert Stroescu
February 4, 2025
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 00:00
I think the number one thing to look for is a place where you can see what the graduates are doing and where the what the support system is for you as an inter you know, looking for internships and post graduation jobs, because it's not necessarily the street name of the school that is going to get you the job. It's the connections that you have
Emily Lane 00:44
Welcome to Clothing Coulture, a fashion industry podcast at the intersection of technology and innovation. I'm Emily Lane
Bret Schnitker 00:51
and I'm Bret Schnitker. We speak with experts and disruptors who are moving the industry forward and discuss solutions to real industry challenges.
Emily Lane 01:00
Clothing Coulture is produced by Stars Design Group, a global design and production house with more than 30 years of experience.
Emily Lane 01:09
Welcome back to another episode of Clothing Coulture today. We are joined by friend and colleague, Mary Ruppert Stroescu, who we have conversations with Mary almost every day, and it's expanding across so many different spaces in the industry, we could have a number of conversations today. Mary is an educator in fashion at Washington University. She is an innovator, having invented a patented sustainable textile solution for the industry. She is a designer and has had a successful business in Paris over a long period of time. And so we're just always talking about our industry and what's transpiring and where it's going, and we've collaborated on programs together. So we just thought, you know what, it's time to just have a nice conversation with Mary. So hey, welcome to the show.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 02:09
Thank you. Thank you. I'm very honored. Illustrious Clothing Coulture, yeah,
Emily Lane 02:18
well, I think it might be fun to just kind of start on the education side of things today. You know, there's a lot that are that the that the the kids in school are having to think about as they are, you know, vetting out schools, and then, you know, trying to decide where to go after school and all of those things. What do you see as some of the you know, the bigger challenges they face?
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 02:44
I think, in today's world, one of the biggest challenges is pairing craft and the beauty and the knowledge and the art of crafting, sewing, making high quality garments, patterning all the traditional side and fabric innovation, you know, understanding what the different textiles are and things like that from a traditional point of view, and then embracing and learning about or learning how to learn, really, because technology changes so Fast, all of the other you know, digital fashion and virtual realization of garments and smart textiles and, you know, biological textiles. And it's, I was just saying to someone the other day, every time I start to prepare a course, I kind of hyperventailate, because there's so much to teach. Yeah, used to be I knew what what to do, but now there's that balance of because you can't I, I really don't recommend not going 100% digital without understanding the tactility of the fabric and and the things that are needed in the craft of putting a garment together, and how to scale that at an industry level, it's, it's really not going to produce clothes that we can wear, that are really comfortable and meeting all of our needs if we only go digitally. I think it's an important aspect
Bret Schnitker 04:14
digital world. Yeah, exactly, physical and digital and, yeah, that was kind of first I ever heard that term was from Janice Wong at Alavnon on so,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 04:24
yeah, yeah, it's a great one, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I kind of see this, this challenge, as a matrix. So you've got the craft and the technology here, and then you've got the desire to express your individuality and who you are, and the need to find yourself as a creative artist that's expressing themselves through clothing that will be worn by someone. And then the other side of the matrix is the job market and the industry, and how to marry all four of those corners into a meaningful education that will help each individual succeed in this future. That whole. Is jobs that we don't even we don't even know will exist. You know, there are going to be jobs out there in 510, years. Even now, I was doing some research about working on a paper about AI and fashion, and I realized that the there's a new profession emerging of prompt engineers to know what to put into the AI engine to get what you want.
Bret Schnitker 05:24
That was a big discussion when we were at the AI summit in Paris, yeah, that, you know, AI is very literal, and creatives are not. And there are a lot of these companies that are coming about to actually be translators for creatives, yeah, you know, and
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 05:39
so and so. The study of that, it mixes linguistics with, you know, computer programming and big data and the fashion industry, technology and like these are fields that, before kind of looked at each other on the side, you know, but working at Washington University, which is, you know, research, one highly focusing on innovation and research with a very high standard for admissions for our students working there. Sometimes people say fashion at WashU, and I'm like, Yeah, we work with the med school, we work with the engineering school. We work with arts and sciences on, you know, linguistics and archeology. I mean, it is a fashion as it has always been, a multi disciplinary, discipline, but even more now, but even more now.
Bret Schnitker 06:33
Talent technology, you know, fashion, art meets science is the name of the game today, isn't it? That's right,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 06:42
that's right. And so in some ways, that's super exciting. A lot of ways it's super exciting,
Bret Schnitker 06:47
but daunting for an educator,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 06:48
yeah, and for a student, yeah, you know, to kind of figure out where you find yourself in all of that.
Bret Schnitker 06:55
You mentioned matrix, you know, this fashion matrix. It is kind of like red blue pill, red pill, blue pill kind of thing. It's like, red pill, I'm a creative person, and blue pill, oh, my God, I got to go out there and deal with all of the challenges from a business aspect.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 07:09
well, and then the other, you know, what do you want to say? The other thing in the mix is to really succeed in fashion, you need to master social media and have a presence and know how to like, document your your work, and explain to people why what you do is different, and tell a story, a story that's it, that's it, that big story. And you know, everything like that, it's, it's a lot more complex than people might imagine.
Bret Schnitker 07:39
you know, the I, I'm not an official educator, but the, you know, I mentor a few people, but as an official educator, there must be so much pressure on preparing students for the real world, right? They come in. You know, every one of them thinks I'm going to be the next major designer. The reality, I don't know what the actual statistic is, but it's one in 1000 right? Well,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 08:07
and especially since, you know, the advent of Project Runway, the number of students in fashion programs has grown exponentially around the world, really, since fashion became something that was a household word, and, you know, designing became kind of like a-
Bret Schnitker 08:21
and it's been, it's become, in some ways, more easily accessible for someone to launch a line, whether or not they can make a living at it is a different story, right? But there's so many micro lines that are starting up and people being, you know, being creative and expressive and in what they're doing. And, you know, we always talk about, you know, we talked about in previous episodes how there's been, in some ways, a line drawn between fashion designers and true artists that paint with other mediums, like, you know, acrylics or oil, or whatever the case may be. And most of them are just as creative. They just paint with cloth, right? Yeah,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 09:00
in some ways, yeah, okay. The field of design is much newer than the field of art. You know, is from the origin of
Bret Schnitker 09:10
everything we painted, paintings, naked at one point, clothing.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 09:16
The field of design was established in the 20th century to be something that is reproducible. So art doesn't have to be reproducible. That's one of the constraints that does fashion designers have. Has to be reproducible. Yeah, it has to be
Emily Lane 09:30
well, unless you couture, right? Because couture-
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 09:33
But still in couture today, you make, make a sample that the model wears, and then you reproduce it for your individual customers. So they're not reproducing it in an industrial form, but they are reproducing it to that client specific.
Emily Lane 09:50
It's not just one
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 09:53
not just one thing. It needs to be reproducible, and then it has to have a utility design equals. Utility of some sort. I mean, you know, and that's where, I think, in that one, and also in the reproducibility, we see lines meshing between art and fashion. Yeah, because, you know, you have wearable art that are these fantastic one off pieces that, you know, Iris Van Herpen, many of her things are not, you can't sit in them. You can't, you know, you can't get in a car and drive with them, but so she is, you know, has items that push that boundary between design and art, yeah, but when it all comes down to it, it does have the function of going around a body with the body's restrictions. You know, an arm is there, right? And so whether you don't want to make it move, you still have to think about it. And in art, you don't have those restrictions.
Bret Schnitker 10:45
True.
Emily Lane 10:45
Yeah,
Bret Schnitker 10:46
interesting. And so, you know, with the statistics being what they are, how do you prepare a student for look? You could be one of the 1000, but many of these people really need to be prepared for the industry of fashion, right? Being a cog in the wheel, a component of a larger engine, yeah,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 11:07
well, and that's kind of the advantage of the types of curricula that I work within, and that, you know, you have specific courses, so they're directed to specific topics,
Bret Schnitker 11:18
okay,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 11:18
you know, we, we have a fiber manipulation course, which is completely, what can you do with a fiber so it's open and cool, and, you know, very, very creative.
Emily Lane 11:28
Sounds fun to come and play around.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 11:32
But then we also have a product development course that's very much about tech packs and, you know, Bill of Materials and how to take a garment and take it into the industry. And so you kind of have to give a student a little bit of each aspect, and then they find where their strength is, yeah,
Bret Schnitker 11:51
how much time is spent technically, you know, walking through the garment technically versus the creative expression during a four year course, I guess
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 12:02
I would say, if you include in walking through a garment, technically, the clothing construction, the patterning, the draping, the grading of sizes, the tech packs and things like that, I would say it's probably around an 80-20 deal, because we don't have enough time to work on the creativity, yeah, because, you know, like I was saying, trying to get all that technology in there, you know, you got to teach the Browzwear and, you know, try to get all of the patterning on the computer and everything. So all that really is, like the technical side, and so that 20% I mean, we also have an experimental design class, which is even, like, you don't even have to use fibers, yeah? And so we have a few of those, but it really is a lot. The burden, I would say, are the challenges to the student to find their own path,
Bret Schnitker 12:52
yeah? And that usually takes time.
Emily Lane 12:53
How do you wrestle with so we've, we've, you know, we've come to your class and done some critiques, which is always really fun, and it's, it's also enjoyable to see the the transformation and growth of your students from a from, you know, a season or a semester to semester, and year after year, you know. And and we, we get to hear other people come in and critique, and sometimes we hear some people go, Oh, this is the time to just be creative, get as crazy and as wild as you can. But we're, you know, from the industry, and we're, you know, the people that come to us. We're very much like you need to hone skills for the real world, you know. And so how do you, how do you wrestle with, what's the best approach there?
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 13:40
Yeah you know, that is the eternal question, I think, because the truth is this capstone collection, or final senior collection, or whatever a school would call it, it really, truly is the one time when you have a team of supporters to help you do what you've always thought you wanted to do as a designer, and it is important to to have a voice and to create a visual vocabulary and a fashion design esthetic that kind of represents yourself to where you can jump off of so what we've kind of come to the conclusion of is we encourage students to do kind of like a two part. You know, a lot of companies will have a signature, like runway show that gets all the press and gets all of the excitement. I'll never forget the first time I went to Paris and went to the Yve Saint Laurent Rive Gauche store. I thought I was going to see these gorgeous dresses and all this great stuff. And what I saw in the star was so boring.
Emily Lane 14:41
It was basics.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 14:42
so I think in order to, you know, really a lot of companies do that, right, you've got your diffusion lines, you've got all of that. So we have the idea of your leadership, creativity, your maximal creative piece. Is are rendered first and explored first, and then we take them through a process of developing a diffusion line. And for that diffusion line, they think about reproducibility in series, in mass production, they're much more held to task on pricing and on sourcing of materials and on manufacturing methods and things like that. So they kind of have a bit of both in their portfolio, right? The kind of challenge sometimes is when a student is really directed to wanting to work in a corporate retail environment, and they're really not into and I can understand, you know, creativity is a, is a it's a continuum. It's not a, you know, a one spot you can have creativity in making very simple things, as much as in the product. Here, in making simple things and having a lot of restrictions, the creativity oftentimes, is in the thought process behind the end product and in, like, a leadership creativity, that's where the end product is, like, wow. It's not to say the thought process isn't as well, but sometimes, you know, you you think, oh, that's just a, you know, like modern art, you know, just a few slops on the on the canvas. But really, it took years and years of formal training to get to that abstraction. And so sometimes it's like pulling out of a creator what they're capable of. You know, I was just talking to a new designer here in St Louis. She's moved here a year ago. Her name is Anna Loosli, and she is a super like her craft is amazing. And she said, when she was doing her masters, she her professor said, go out and have a drink or something, loosen up.
Bret Schnitker 16:51
Well your last name is loosley.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 16:54
Do something different. And they were trying to push her to, like, go out there, and then her, you know, I showed you guys the pictures, and I can't wait to meet her it, she had some great results. So sometimes
Bret Schnitker 17:05
so drinking and fashion
Emily Lane 17:08
This is why we have a bar at the office. So go ahead.
Bret Schnitker 17:15
I was thinking, you've spent so much time in the education sector. You've been through a number of universities, and as students are making decisions on where to go. You know, fashion is kind of a cool section to get into. There's a lot of creatives that want to go, go into that field. But as we've talked before, you know, you end up in different parts of the industry, not everyone could be a great designer. What are the what are the main things that you think a student should be looking for when they're exploring a university to go to knowing the reality of what what our industry is?
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 17:54
What a good question. And before I get to that, I do want to jump back to one other thing that you said, because you said, Not everyone becomes a great designer and they end up in the other jobs, yeah, and I think that's something that students need to or potential people who like fashion, right? So many people contact us and say, Oh, I like fashion, but I can't sew, oh, I don't know how to draw, but I have a great sense of style. And the exciting thing about studying fashion is that there are so many jobs, right, right? Like you have, we have a great team of interns here this summer at Stars in all sorts of different aspects, but they're all studying fashion, right? And so I-
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 18:19
They washed my car, amazing,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 18:34
right, right? So I do you know, I think that's one thing that one should think about on the onset and to be open to discovering jobs that you didn't really realize existed now in evaluating a school. And you're right. I have taught at private private kind of like technical schools. I've taught at research one institutions. I've taught at private liberal arts schools. And so I think the number one thing to look for is a place where you can see what the graduates are doing and where the what the support system is for you as an intern you know, looking for internships and post graduation jobs, because it's not necessarily the street name of the school that is going to get you the job. It's the connections that you have.
Bret Schnitker 19:33
You have a very good placement, right?
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 19:35
We do. We have wonderful connections. And I was just talking last winter, when I was in New York, I was talking to someone who teaches at fit, and I was saying, Yeah, we went to see, you know, so and so at this big company that's an alum telling about all the alums at the companies we were going to. And she was like, how do your students get all these jobs? I teach so many great students, and they're all. Always looking for jobs, and it's so tough. And I like my one answer, one is, of course, where we tear them fabulously, and they're great, very talented, intelligent people, but that network is key.
Bret Schnitker 20:13
yeah, and that's not something you would traditionally think of as a student, right? You'd be like, Oh, am I gonna get all my technical education, my creative You know, input, but, yeah, you're right. I think that's a critical. It really is you are spending a lot of money going into school,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 20:31
and effort, and so that's one, I think another thing to think about is, like I said earlier, you know, understanding and knowing those key technical, traditional things, is super important. But also be sure that the professor staff, or if they don't have it, that they are very tightly linked with lovely industry partners that have industry experience, sometimes in people like especially in universities like four year universities, state universities and things like that, they really require one to have a PhD or a terminal degree, a PhD or an MFA to teach. And a lot of times, people who go that route don't have industry experience, and so they know how to research. They can write papers. They can take a problem and, you know, explore it and do a make a contribution to the body of knowledge. But from an fashion industry perspective, sometimes they don't know what they don't know. And so I would really be sure that you know, if you are considering a school that has, you know, great PhDs and, you know, things like that, just be sure that either they have done professional internships. I mean, I go to Paris all the time. I work with you guys. I've always got my fingers in what's happening in the industry because, and I always have since I started my career out in the industry, that was kind of like a natural but I think that's an important aspect to look at in the professorial group of the place that you're studying. And then a third thing is try not to get stuck in the technical and the micro world of designing your collection, be sure that you have a solid liberal arts background that you know how to read a article from The Economist about what's happening in Ukraine, that you know how to like discuss with someone in a, at a, at a, I don't want to say necessarily intellectual level, but at a sophisticated level. Let's say you know what's happening in the world, right?
Emily Lane 22:52
Because geopolitical influences are significant in our industry, yeah,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 22:57
So important. And also think about the business side of things. Because, you know, we are in a business, like I was saying earlier, you know, we're designing, so we're making a product for a market that is going to be sold. And I have a, you know, I don't know. No one I knew was in fashion when I went to study. And I didn't even know it was a major, but I had always sewn. And I took classes in, you know, political science, and I already noticed that those classes were kind of paralleling some things that were happening in fashion and marketing, and it's all a big mix, so having that liberal arts thinking cap will help you to not, not not stay in your first job. Because that's another thing that I've noticed in talking with people in the industry who are hiring and things you know, it's like, okay, this person was a great, you know, beginning assistant designer, they moved up to associate designer. Now I need someone who can, like, look at the system and maybe be a manager of other people. So if there's any way you could get experience in managing, in organizing, in project management, things like that, you know, sometimes it's easier to just like, take all those classes that you like and that are really fun and really kind of just go to a place where you can experiment with other aspects of education.
Emily Lane 24:29
So you are, you are actually one of those rare and special people that have have made it, and you are the designer. You're you're out there people know your name. What are some of the bigger challenges they face?
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 24:45
Yes, well, one of the biggest challenges, kind of, we kind of touched on it earlier, is, you know, you get a name, you get a reputation, if you will, for a certain type of an esthetic. And then times change, people change, technology changes and like one of the biggest challenges is staying true to your core person, your core esthetic, your core expression, while being able to adapt to different things. And just on a personal note. You know, we were talking about this textile upcycling and sustainable design technology that I've been working on for about 12 years, and I started working with T shirt scraps because that was kind of like a low hanging fruit on college campus get T shirts. And with my my team, I always love to work in a team. With my team, we, you know, we went in a direction that was kind of almost a ready women's ready to wear, not t shirts. That wasn't really me. And so I have these pieces that I've, you know, people love. It's like, Yeah, but that wasn't really me. It was my team, and I was leading the team. And so this past summer, I've been really doing a lot of reflection and looking at different materials and different things. And I have a collection I'm working on that is using wool. And there are Pendleton wool scraps, the selvedge scraps that Pendleton sells, and and velvet and we are, I reached out to my friends who are from other countries because I, my husband, was born in another country, and I have a lot of friends that were born in other countries and actually live in other countries. And in 2021 when the US pulled out of Afghanistan, I was very I was mentoring, email, mentoring a young woman from Afghanistan who was trying to get out of the country because she risked, you know, her life because of the the change in regime. And that's a whole nother, you know, discussion, but I got to see her when I was in Paris. I got to see her in person, yay. And we got to really, like, sit across the table, like, be in each other's face. And at the time, when I was mentoring her, and she was trying to get out of the country, she did, she got to France, I thought about the concept of loss, and I had that be a theme for my classes, my fiber manipulation class that fall, and I saw how some students took loss into I've lost my childhood, but I'm starting a whole new life. Or, you know, they turned the loss idea into joy. So as I was walking in Tower Grove Park one morning, I thought, I want to focus on loss and what people lose by leaving their country and what they gain by coming to another country. So I have, I reached out to a bunch of my friends, and they sent me statements, and now I'm embroidering those statements on little pieces of velvet that I'm integrating into this coat. It's going to be like the leadership piece for a collection that I feel is finally going to be like, really, my thing, you know,
Emily Lane 28:06
that's incredible. I love that.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 28:09
I'm excited
Bret Schnitker 28:10
Being a designer and and seeing what we're you know, it's not as easy as maybe 1015, years ago, where, you know, you'd be a designer, you create a great garment. People would just love the garment and accept it and buy it. It was a simpler time, if you will. Right today, there's so many things influencing fashion, sustainable initiatives, size inclusivity, gender neutrality, I mean, geopolitical, kind of things, all of these influences are impacting the way that designers are looking at things. What are you seeing? You know, what? How are designers grappling with all of these different elements? Because, much like any artist in any medium. You know, designers have a community. They they express the social norms of what are going on in their own way, and in this way, it's in garments. So what's happening in this crazy world?
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 29:17
Good question. I think that you know, the little piece of it that I I study and I know of and I navigate, I see a lot more collaboration than ever before, a lot of cross understanding of other people's needs and wants and things you Know, the list of non exhaustive, obviously, list of challenges or new areas of emphasis that you just mentioned. You know, everyone doesn't experience all of those on their own, right? So there is a lot more, like openness and outreach to say, maybe have a conversation with someone who you. Has a different perspective than you. And not not trying to say, you talk to someone for 10 minutes and you know everything about him, right? But just raising awareness and maybe, like working together, I see a lot more collaboration happening.
Bret Schnitker 30:13
That is really insightful. And you know how all these things are driving collaboration? Because you're seeing big brands come, you know, collaborating with a different, specific designer that never used to happen in the past. You know, it's like the designers the island and everyone kind of goes but today it seems like areal mash up.
Emily Lane 30:29
Is that for inspiration, or do you think it's for kind of the marketing, marketing benefit
Bret Schnitker 30:35
It could be all of the above, right? Very insightful. If you're trying to bring in a sustainable initiative, you're going to work with somebody that has more of a sustainable bend to help you get further down the road.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 30:51
Yeah, maybe, I think, you know, the forward facing. You know, Montclair genius project of collaborating with famous designers was obviously an inspiration and a marketing aspect. But if you have a brand where you're trying to explore a new avenue, one of our alumni is the creative director for Another Tomorrow, which is a new, sustainable only brand. Her name is Elizabeth. She's from St Louis, and she was telling us that, you know, they are really like they don't use bone because that's animal. You know, there's a whole new way of thinking about making clothes with that suit, 100% sustainability lens. And she has collaborated with sustainability experts that you don't it's not a marketing deal, right? You know, it's a real knowledge acquisition. And they've been so successful because they really have this like fundamental and and always overarching direction in that area. So I think some of the collaborations are gonna be even more like back room to be able to address. I mean, you know, you mentioned earlier, Alvanon, and all of their work with sizing, and, you know, I think there's a lot of opportunity in size inclusivity, because, you know, you do have gender neutrality, but, you know, bodies are kind of shaped according to those two genders, so building a new size set that will accommodate both types of shapes is an exciting area, but it's going to take collaborations.
Bret Schnitker 32:37
Size inclusivity and size transparency, as people are buying more online, reducing this footprint of waste that we have. You know, science of fits becoming more and more important, totally transparency of that fence becoming more important.
Emily Lane 32:53
Yeah, and you know, you've talked about the two bodies that the genders are tied to, but there's also within each body type, Endo, Ecto, mezzo, you know that different different shapes. So now we're really talking about some dealing with complexities when we're trying to be more inclusive.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 33:13
Yeah, and you're right. You know, times before were much more simple. There was missys and juniors and you know what they call it, plus sizes, young men, and it was like, if you didn't fit those, tough luck on you. But now it's a consumer driven market, so consumers don't like it if they aren't getting right. Yeah, yeah. So that's one big thing. I think collaboration is, is a really big piece. And I think another thing is, you know, people are finding their corner. You know, you can't be all things to everyone, so you have to, I mean, I've learned that so much from you Bret, in terms of sustainability, you know, it's okay just to do as much as you can. And not fred about, using polyester thread.
Bret Schnitker 34:03
It's a journey, not a destination. We don't have all the answers yet, and as long as you're making efforts to move along that path, we're going to see progression. It's not going to be turn a light switch. And I think people just need to understand that.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 34:15
I think so too, although sometimes this fashion industry is I don't know it's a term that I read from Lee Edel Court of Trend Union. She wrote a manifesto in 2015 about kind of what needed to change with the fashion industry. And she says that fashion is so old fashioned because we do things, you know, we make clothes basically the same way we have for years. There's some fancy machines out there that do things, but basically it's very much the same. So back in the late 90s, when I was thinking of what I would do for my PhD, I was really excited about mass customization and body scanning. And back then, we said that by today, we would all have go into a mall get our body scan. We'd have our body scan on a card, we would go online, and we'd be able to plunk into the company our code from our card and get our perfect size
Bret Schnitker 34:15
in a garment, just like Jetsons,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 34:16
yeah, just like the Jetsons, right, exactly. But, I mean, they were looking at technologies that should enable us to do that right, and Levi tried it, right? They had, they had body scanning in their San Francisco store. I remember going there, so excited to do the body scanning. And I went up and they're like, it's broken here. Let me just measure you. It's the same thing. I was like no.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 35:36
So, you know, I think it, while it's very exciting, we have all these new avenues that we're going to go to, I think we need to always strive to go further, but accept the fact that it is a slow, like you said, an incremental process.
Bret Schnitker 35:51
There's a lot of exciting innovation out there when it comes to sustainability and eco friendly materials, but we have a very, very long way to go.
Emily Lane 35:59
Yeah, yeah. You were just, you were in Europe not that long ago.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 36:04
It was, yeah,
Emily Lane 36:05
what did you see happening over there that you found inspiring?
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 36:09
Well, you know, I find Europe inspiring, like in every aspect, as I'm sure you guys do, but in particular, this time, I was there doing couture week, and I hadn't been since 2018 which was a real like pain for me, because I go, you know, rather frequently. So one of the things that I really was reminded of is the beauty of how everything is connected. So the Sunday I got there, I went to the Musee Des Arts Decoratifs for an exhibit about jewelry and design and fashion. And so it was like chairs and jewelry and clothing in this amazingly inspirational exhibit to kind of help you think about how things flow from one industry to another, and-
Bret Schnitker 37:03
Whatr dress you wear when you sit in a specific trip.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 37:05
Exactly. And as I was leaving, I noticed in the big hall, they were getting ready for a big fashion show. And so, you know, I'm trying to get in there and see we're on a balcony. And so I took some pictures, did some videos, and there were these people, there were these models on a runway. Half of them were pulling out a tug of war, one way and the other way, a tug of war. And I was like, Oh, that's interesting. So then I'm walking out, and I realized
Bret Schnitker 37:36
Very French,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 37:36
yeah, well, actually, it's very American, because it was the Thom Browne show rehearsal. If you watch the show, they, they have a tug of war in there. And his show was very inspired by the Olympics, okay, the the show,
Bret Schnitker 37:54
I thought it was some angst.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 37:55
It was, yeah, and it was like, you know, at the at one point he had models in the three, you know, gold, silver and bronze on the stage kind of thing. So it was very influenced by the Olympics. And then the next day I went to the Musee Des Arts Decoratifs No, that was the first day I went to the Musee Galliera, the fashion museum. And they had an exhibit of fashion and sport, oh, I know, right, like the whole thing, and I had really anticipated seeing a lot of, like, high tech fabrics and things, because for me, fashion sport is high tech fabrics. But it started out in the late 1800s and it was a really beautiful pathway through the evolution of, really women and sports and what we were able to wear, and what we had to wear, and what we you know, when it was okay to wear bloomers to ride a bicycle, and, you know, the original bloomers were right there, because it's the Paris Fashion, and so, You know, I had that really delightful pathway through the historic evolution of of clothing and sport from a female perspective, which, you know, clothing has been used to restrict women in history majorly. And so then the I was leaving that museum, walking up, George V, and I see this girl dressed in the Thom Browne uniform of gray pants and a gray jacket, because the day before I went and stood outside of the Musee Des Arts Decoratifs because I didn't have an invitation to get into the show. But watching the
Bret Schnitker 39:37
you're supposed to just walk in backwards and say you're leaving, that's the sounds good. I've had enough I'm leaving. Yeah, right. Don't leave.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 39:46
Yeah, exactly. It was really cool to see all the people outside. And you know how some people just go to be seen outside the shows and in entrances, all the important people go into hidden entrances, right? Not all of them. So there were a couple of famous people. That I didn't recognize, but everybody was very excited. But then the next day, I was walking up George V and I saw this girl sitting there smoking a cigarette. And I, you know, I flew to French so I just walked up to and I said, Hey, what's up? You know, I noticed you're wearing Thom Browne. She's like, Oh, I'm one of the showroom managers up here on the seventh floor. Is where we're taking our individual appointments with people to order the collection.
Emily Lane 40:24
Oh, wow.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 40:25
And, you know, it's just like, it's all through the city.
Bret Schnitker 40:29
She doesn't normally smoke a cigarette, but she did, because she was in Paris,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 40:32
right, exactly. And then I went to the Georges Pompidou Center, where there was a phenomenal exhibit of Constantine Brancusi, who is a sculptor, you know, mid century sculpture, and he just happens to be Romanian, like my husband. So I had to see that. And when I walked in, he's famous for these very stylized sculptures. And he has a whole series of the rooster sculpture, which is the symbol of France. So he was like giving homage to his new country, another person that left a country to be in any country that's in my in my Zeitgeist right now. And the first room was these enormous sculptures, like 24 feet tall of this rooster abstraction, all in white, just like Thom Browne collection. Whoa, with the angles and the things like words in Thom Browne collection, and it was just like, full circle. Everything was connecting. Wow.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 40:32
It's an amazing city for that.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 40:42
Do you think it's because all of these artists are getting inspiration from each other, or do you think that there's almost some invisible thread connecting us that we don't really fully understand?
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 41:49
I think it's the latter. Yeah, you know, I do. You know, I ask myself, and I want to ask Thom Browne, so you let me know if he saw the Brancusi exhibit, or if that had, in any way an influence on him, because the connection was really striking to me. And I do think there is this thing that they call that Zeitgeist is the German term for spirit of the times. Zeit is Spirit, and times is Zeit, and Geist is spirit. And so there is this, you know, this thing, and it's happened since the beginning of time. You know, we talk about cultural appropriation, but back in the prehistoric times, you can find artifacts from South America and Southeast Asia. These people had no way of contacting each other, but we see similarities in those things. So there is this, like, spirit of the times, and that's why I kind of kind of bringing back to the what you need to look for in a fashion program that liberal arts, that openness to read what's going on around you in the world that is so important in our industry. Because, yeah, people that don't connect come up with the same thing, and then you're like, how did that happen? And it's just this in intangible and
Bret Schnitker 43:03
aren't we super charging that with technology, we're more connected than we ever were. Yeah, you know, the algorithms on our phone start, you know, I'm sure ThomBrowne saw that sculpture as he was on Facebook. I've got it right, you know? So it's amazing how technology can connect us in a way that really furthers the zeitgeist of today.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 43:24
So connection, yeah,
Emily Lane 43:26
so being open to the Zeitgeist,
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 43:27
that's right, and being like, absorbing it and reading it and then translating it in your own way.
Emily Lane 43:32
Oh, I love that. Well, thank you for joining us in this conversation, Mary. I we've been trying to get together since you got back from from France, and I feel like we almost need a glass of wine here for this conversation. It's very but I know we have many additional conversations to explore with you in the future, but it was definitely fun to catch up, and
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 43:57
such a delight. I just, I just love talking about things with you all. Likewise, yeah, great mind bending activity. You know, we keep saying that we need to have once a month chats here for the fashion community in St Louis. We need, we're going to do that.
Bret Schnitker 44:15
I think that's a great idea.
Mary Ruppert Stroescu 44:16
Yeah, that sounds good.
Emily Lane 44:17
Well, thank you, Mary and thank you, you for joining us today on Clothing Coulture, do not forget to subscribe to stay apprised of upcoming episodes.
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